An elderly woman entered the Presidential Pawn shop in Rapid City, SD. Tuesday morning with a box of WW II artifacts not realizing the contents contained a live hand-grenade.

The employee on duty at the time, Ron Johnson, calmly put the grenade in a safe until the Ellsworth Air Base Bomb Unit could remove the device from the store.

I was just thinking, I hope this doesn't go off. I just said 'this is very, very dangerous.'" - Ron Johnson, Presidential Pawn employee

The unidentified woman said her husband, who served in the Pacific theater during WW II, had the grenade on his desk for years.

Johnson said the Ellsworth Bomb Unit picked up the device and put it in a special canister. He said the wait was an especially tense one.

 

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